Bus attack leaves girl afraid to attend school

Victim's family hasn't been told if it's safe for her to return to class.

Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2005

After a sixth-grade girl at West Chatham Middle School got beat up by another girl on the bus ride home last week, she and her mother are still waiting to hear from the school that it is safe for her to return to class.

Alissa Gordon, a West Chatham sixth-grader, was sitting in the seat directly behind the bus driver April 20 when she and a girl seated a few rows back began exchanging looks in the bus rear view mirror.

Alissa said the other girl has persistently bullied her since last school year.

After the girls "exchanged words once," according to a report the bus driver filed with Laidlaw, the other student got out of her seat and began punching Alissa in the head.

After reviewing a recording of the fight captured by the bus security camera, campus police chief Ulysses Bryant said the attack appeared to be unprovoked.

Alissa sustained multiple contusions and a sprained wrist as a result of the attack. Her doctor has cleared her to return to school, but her mother said Alissa is too worried about her safety to go back.

The school, Alissa said, has not handled the situation very well.

"They should sit down and talk with us about it," Alissa said.

Alissa and her mother, Melissa Gordon, said no one from the school has contacted them to see how Alissa is doing or to inform them whether the alleged attacker is still in school.

The family has retained an attorney with the help of Alissa's grandmother Glenda Forbes Drossopoulos, who is the chief deputy clerk at probate court.

The attorney mailed a letter to West Chatham's principal requesting a range of information related to the incident and alleged attacker.

He also mailed a copy of that letter to acting superintendent George Bowen and campus police chief Bryant along with another note complaining that the West Chatham administration has done little to respond to the incident.

Drossopoulos said only Bryant has responded to the letters.

West Chatham principal Kerry Coursey did not return a call to her home seeking comment.

Melissa Gordon acknowledged that she has not phoned Coursey seeking information since the alleged attack. But she said she has been rebuffed during earlier attempts to talk to administrators about Alissa being bullied.

Gordon said she went to the school April 19, the day before the incident, after learning that the other girl had been acting out on the bus.

She said she was told she couldn't speak to anyone because of testing.

Alissa said she met with the school's assistant principal earlier this year to talk about the older girl bullying her.

The 13-year-old girl has been charged with battery and her case referred to juvenile court. Bryant said he could not reveal how West Chatham sanctioned the girl since disciplinary matters are confidential, but he said he believes she is not longer at the school.

Despite the incident on the bus and reports of recent incidents at Garrison Elementary and Groves High School, Bryant said he believes the district's 35,000 students are safe.

As a testimony to his confidence, he pointed to the fact that his wife and daughter work in schools and his grandchildren are enrolled all the way from elementary to high school. "I feel safer at schools than at the malls," he said.